Category Archives: Anarchism

Hacktivist collective Anonymous claims to have dumped online a huge database belonging to Turkey’s General Directorate of Security (EGM) in response to “various abuses” by the Turkish government in recent months.

The person who uploaded the database Monday said he received it from a hacker who had “persistent access to various parts of the Turkish government infrastructure for the past two years.”

The compressed file is expected to weigh in at some 2.8GB, and the uncompressed version at around 17.8GB.

The files were released “in light of various government abuses in the past few months” in Turkey, as the activist “decided to take action against corruption,” the activists added.

EGM is the civilian police force in Turkey, tasked with preventing crime, keeping the peace and protecting citizens and their property.

Turkey has recently seen a clampdown on media freedom, with several journalists facing treason charges after unmasking dubious practices by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his government.

The Turkish authorities are also carrying out a so-called anti-terrorist operation against Kurdish militias in the southeast of the country, killing at least 150 civilians and putting over 200,000 lives at risk due to a strict curfew, according to Amnesty International.

Erdogan’s government has been shelling the Kurds fighting Islamic State (IS or Daesh, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in Syria and earlier was slammed for sending troops into Iraqi territory.

The Texas activist group Don’t Comply was making waves again this week after they were ejected from a bioterrorism drill for filming. Members of Don’t Comply signed up to be “crisis actors” in a mock government drill, which is said to train police and emergency crews for an actual attack.

Don’t Comply members Matthew Short, Murdoch Pizgatti, Brett Sanders and others were accepted to take part in the drill, and they decided to bring their cameras and film the event so they could give the public a better idea of how these drills work and ultimately, how their tax dollars are spent. The group had responded to a public call for volunteers that was broadcast through NBC News. The article asked for 200 volunteers play the role of a “patient” in a mock bioterrorism attack.

According to Addison fire chief John O’Neil, there were multiple government agencies involved in the operation, including the local fire department, health department, and police department.

“The fire department does frequent training so that we can be prepared for any emergency. By Partnering with these other agencies, we are able to participate in exercises we could not possibly manage alone,” O’Neil told NBC.

Matthew Short told The Free Thought Project that Don’t Comply wanted to get to the bottom of what was really going on with these training drills and these crisis actors, to experience for themselves and to show the world what was happening.

“We were interested in what they were training for. There was a public call for up to two hundred crisis actors. The Dontcomply crew thought it would be a great idea to get cameras inside to look past conspiracy theories, and find out what was actually going on,” Short said.

“My nickname online is showme. I like to see things to believe them,” he added.

As expected, as soon as they entered the drill, their presence and the presence of their cameras was unwelcome and they were asked to stop filming by a number of organizers and volunteers.

Brett Sanders described the encounter in a recent article, saying that,

One Dallas County volunteer who was sporting an official lanyard of some kind requested that I not film her, which I politely refused. Not only was she working in an official government capacity, she was in a public space with no expectation to privacy. That didn’t stop her from charging at me and my camera, attempting to knock the camera out of my hands. I’m not a lawyer, but I believe I was assaulted by this government volunteer for refusing to stop recording.

Sanders went on to describe how his crew was kicked out, and that the local mainstream news affiliate was kicked out as well.

Don’t Comply activists are calling these actions taken by police and government agents an attack on the freedom of the press and the first amendment.

“As an independent journalist, I took great interest in this event and believed that the public has a right to know how their own government is allocating resources and should be aware of how the drill was being conducted,” Sanders said.

A video of the activists being kicked out of the drill can be viewed below:

As we reported last month, Don’t Comply regularly feeds the homeless in their area despite a local law that prohibits them from doing so.

Interestingly enough, Don’t Comply also made headlines earlier this month for an entirely different type of protest. In addition to being advocates for the homeless, Don’t Comply is also heavily involved in gun rights and open carry activism.

Earlier this month, they staged a mock mass shooting at “gun free zones” to demonstrate how long it took police to arrive. Their protest was controversial, but actually changed the minds of many who rely on police as their only source of protection.

John Vibes is an author and researcher who organizes a number of large events including the Free Your Mind Conference. He also has a publishing company where he offers a censorship free platform for both fiction and non-fiction writers. You can contact him and stay connected to his work at his Facebook page. You can purchase his books, or get your own book published at his website www.JohnVibes.com.

If internationalists were to get their way fully with the world and future historians write their analysis from a globalist perspective of the defunct American nation, they will probably say simply that our collapse was brought about by our own incompetence – that we were our own worst enemy. Yes, they would treat America as a cliché. They will of course leave out the destructive influences and engineered disasters of elitists, that would just complicate the narrative.

My hope is that we do not prove these future historians correct, and that they won’t have an opportunity to exist. My work has always been designed to help ensure that resistance thrives, but also that it is pursued in the most intelligent manner possible.

As I write this, China’s stock market has crashed 7% and was shut down by Chinese authorities who are once again initiating outright intervention to stem the tide. U.S. markets are quickly tracking lower. Oil is plummeting.

Relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran have turned ugly, with Iranian protesters overtaking the Saudi embassy and both sides vowing vengeance. Many Americans won’t care much about this because they think it has nothing to do with them. They don’t realize that Saudi Arabia has already publicly suggested a depeg from the U.S. dollar, effectively ending the decades-long relationship between the greenback and oil. The Iranian event and U.S. ties to both nations only make the fall of the dollar’s petro-status more likely in the near term. With the U.S. in the middle, “taking a side” will be a demand. I believe the U.S. government will NOT take a side, and this will elicit a furious response from Saudi Arabia (a currency depeg).

The Obama Administration has just made introductory announcements on new gun control measures through executive order. These announcements were rather light on details and heavy on crocodile tears. Their vagueness is clearly deliberate. Psychological evaluations, redefining who is a lawful firearms dealer, “expanding” background checks; all of these measures could be interpreted broadly to mean almost anything. We will probably know more in the coming weeks.

And in Oregon over the weekend, Ammon Bundy and friends lured hundreds of protesters under false pretenses using the Hammond family tragedy as a vehicle to then initiate a takeover of federal buildings that have no strategic or symbolic value, boxing themselves into a static position and proclaiming themselves to be the “tip of the spear” in the fight against corrupt government. In the meantime, anyone who questions the validity of this idea or the logic behind the “plan” is immediately labeled a coward and “keyboard warrior” by their supporters. Emotionally manipulative arguments abound because there are no tactically rational arguments to be made, which tells me that the plan was doomed before it was implemented.

I openly supported and aided the efforts at Bundy Ranch because the ranchers were defending their home from clear federal aggression. The Feds were direct invaders in that scenario. In Oregon, protesters are being perceived as the invaders, not the defenders — and all launched in the name of the Hammond family, who asked them NOT to artificially create a standoff. The two scenarios are polar opposites, and Oregon will end in a very different fashion.

I would just like to note that the Founding Fathers were smart enough to avoid deliberately trapping themselves in static positions on land that had no strategic or symbolic importance while inviting the British to “come and get them”. Again, there are right ways and wrong ways to fight tyranny. Simply being willing to fight is not enough.

Now, if Americans are going to create standoff situations that could result in civil war they should do it over draconian gun control measures such as the use of classified government watch lists as grounds for denial of 2nd Amendment rights, rather than using a family who did not want armed support to begin with as a means to an end.

Keep in mind that watch lists are entirely arbitrary. There is no due process involved whatsoever, meaning you or I could walk into a gun store one day only to have our 4473 form denied because some bureaucrat in an office in D.C. decided we said something he doesn’t like and belong on a naughty list. The changing of gun dealer laws could be used to erase gun shows and private sales of firearms as well.

A standoff scenario based on these issues would be a much more practical concept than what is taking place in Oregon.

As our situation in this country becomes more precarious, there are going to be far more flashpoints than anyone will be able to keep track of. It is inevitable that a fight between corrupt elements of the U.S. government and regular people will erupt. I and other analysts have been warning people about this for years. I have been educating people on their preparedness options and tactical resources. I have been promoting community preparedness teams in my work with Oath Keepers and helping to organize such teams in my own part of the country. I even designed the first working thermal evasion suit available to civilians to give people half a chance against advanced weaponry. I have no illusions that a peaceful solution exists. I know that there is no such solution at this point in the game. But when the fighting starts, I also know that those who navigate the storm intelligently rather than allowing their emotions to get the best of them are more likely to survive and succeed.

I cannot say how quickly a crisis will develop. But, I can outline some of the many pitfalls you are going to come across as this storm rises.

False Leadership And Irrational Leadership

You are going to stumble across numerous gung ho activists and even politicians who will claim they have the one and only solution, that they are the real “tip of the spear.” First, if you feel compelled to seek out leaders on the mere basis that they have offered to lead you, then you need to do some soul searching. Become your own leader first. And then, if you meet someone with an excellent plan and a principled motive, give him the time of day, but don’t jump blindly into any situation.

If his plan seems poorly thought out, don’t follow him. If his agenda revolves around his own ego and a desire for personal glory, don’t follow him. If he focuses completely on the Obama administration and ignores the complicity of Republican leadership, don’t follow him. If all he talks about are the evils of the federal government but he ignores the puppet strings that lead to international banks and globalist organizations, don’t follow him. If he refuses to allow his initiatives to be questioned or discussed in a reasonable way, do not follow him. If he acts as if his ideas are sacrosanct and questions your “patriotism” when you do not immediately jump on the bandwagon, do not follow him. Remember, it is the job of this leadership to CONVINCE YOU of the legitimacy of their plan if they are seeking your support. The burden of evidence is on them. It is not your job to support them blindly just because you want to avoid being called a “sunshine patriot”.

To summarize, if you are going to follow someone, know him well first, and make sure his planning is solid.

Hotheads And Imbeciles

I’ve found that there are two very frustrating extremes within the liberty movement: the people who embrace pacifism and who refuse to even consider the possibility of a violent conflict and self-defense, and the people who have delusions of being the next George Washington and are ready to dive headlong into any violent confrontation without thinking because they want to cement their own legacy. Neither of these groups seems to be able to treat each event as unique: some events requiring a diplomatic approach and some of them requiring the violence of action.

The pacifists are annoying, but they mostly hurt themselves in their lack of preparedness and a warrior’s mindset. The hotheads are the real problem. If you are only looking for a fight, then one will certainly find you; but any moron can trigger a standoff with the Feds. The point is to be able to make a move that matters in the long run. Hotheads cannot think beyond themselves and their immediate needs. They are like mosquitoes mindlessly hunting for blood. Strategic planning is impossible for them and they will destroy allies in the process of their pursuits.

I hate to say it, but there is a distinct possibility that our current generation of freedom advocates and freedom fighters may not live to see the future we are working toward. That better world built on liberty, individualism and voluntary community is something our children will thrive in, not us. If you are not fighting with a long term strategy in mind, then you have missed the entire point.

Factions And Tribes

Humans in crisis events tend to become more tribal in their associations in order to survive, and this is not necessarily a bad thing. I would rather live in a tribal world than under centralized corrupt government or global government any day. That said, if a “tribe” or faction does not respect the rights of the individual or uses unprovoked violence to achieve its goals, then it is no better than any other tyranny. Never trade safety for tyranny, regardless of the difficulties ahead.

The upside is tyrants of small tribes are easier to deal with than tyrants of large nations. They are no more bulletproof than anyone else, and they don’t have the resources to prevent reprisal if they hurt the wrong people.

Expect that families, neighborhoods, towns, churches, gangs and activist groups will rally around each other as a way to provide security. If you do not already have friends and family on board with your way of thinking, you will be isolated, making survival far more difficult if a breakdown does occur.

Governments Will Not Disappear

I can think of very few scenarios in history in which a crisis or collapse immediately facilitated the fall of the government in power. Rather, the government usually morphs into something else, something more dangerous. In fact, crisis is often the prime excuse used by corrupt officials to rationalize greater controls on the population. This in turn acts as a catalyst for more rebellion, which in turn acts as a vindication of the government’s tyranny.

Does this mean people should not rebel against tyranny? No, it means that we have to fight smart and retain the moral high ground at all times. We must act in a way that exposes the true nature of corrupt government, rather than giving them more ammunition to shoot us down with in the public eye. Above all, if we fight we must fight TO WIN. This means not deliberately searching for an Alamo. Martyrs are ultimately useless in this kind of war because if we lose, no one will remember them anyway. Glory seekers and self-proclaimed prophets will only lead people to disaster.

Develop a tactical mindset because the future will require tactical minds. Maintain your principles no matter the threats ahead. Retain your humanity. But also, when the fight begins, fight with the intention of victory. Choose your ground wisely.

Ever since armed militiamen took over a federal building in the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, the one question that has been on everyone’s mind is “how are the Feds going to respond to this?” Regardless of whether or not you support these people, you have to admit that the government’s response hasn’t been typical.

At least for now, there isn’t an army of soldiers, or swat teams, or tanks, bearing down on the militia’s position. As far as we know the FBI is en route, and that’s pretty much it. From the accounts that have been coming out of the area, it doesn’t look like a Waco situation. It doesn’t look like a Bundy Ranch situation either.

Granted, this could still get really ugly at any time, but based on what government officials have said, it doesn’t sound like they want that. While its hard to say what they are thinking behind the scenes, publicly they are calling for a peaceful resolution to the situation. Even the White House chimed in, referring to the standoff as a “local law enforcement matter” and refusing to label the militiamen “terrorists,” before calling for a peaceful resolution.

I don’t know if they really mean that, but it means something. Just as the militiamen have claimed that they won’t shoot unless fired upon first, the government may be trying to play the same card. Perhaps they are trying to makes themselves look peaceful and rational, before sending in a provocateur to escalate the situation in their favor, but who knows? It’s just as likely that they genuinely don’t want a civil war on their hands. If they did, they would have burned the Bundy Ranch to the ground back in 2014.

Honestly, I think they learned their lesson after Waco and Ruby Ridge. As much as our authoritarian government would love to shoot and burn every American that challenges them, they know it only makes things worse. In the long run, those incidents only served to catalyze the growing militia movement at the time, and they still inspire fear in our government to this day. Granted, the government wants you to be afraid, but it has to be the right kind of fear. They want you hiding under your bed. The last thing they want, is for everyone to grab a rifle and start organizing with like-minded people.

And that’s precisely why they backed down from the Bundy Ranch. They knew that in the public’s eyes, they did not have the moral high ground. They knew that if they fired upon those ranchers and militiamen, it would only foment more resistance around the country.

That doesn’t mean they don’t want some kind of revolution or civil war in the near future. If they ever want to really lock this country down and suppress all resistance in the population, that would be the perfect excuse. However, it’s hard to say if they want that war to occur right now. They need to be sure that all of their ducks are in a row before they spark that kind of conflict, and I don’t think they are.

Which brings us back to the standoff in Oregon. In the long run, what is our government going to do about this? Are they going to sit back and try to wait out the militia? Are they going to negotiate with them? Will they use a provocateur to inspire violence in the militiamen, or will they just steam roll through them with APC’s and soldiers?

While it’s likely that the government doesn’t want a revolution (at the moment), they have also reached a moment of truth. They’ve come face to face with a crippling reality that every heavy-handed regime reaches at some point.

During the 90’s they learned that violent suppression only breeds more resistance. Now they’re beginning to learn what happens when they don’t respond with immediate violence. If they let these people get away with this, even for a little while, what message are they sending to the American population? That if you show up with guns to a government building, the government will just roll over and play ball? That too, also breeds more resistance. The population realizes that the government is too chicken to fight them, and they’ll start to take back their country.

So there’s really only two courses of action that the government can take, if they want to maintain their long-term existence. They can find a peaceful resolution that leaves them looking authoritative. Or, they can find a way to oust these men by force in a way that makes them look like the good guys (i.e. with a false flag of some kind). If the militiamen don’t leave on their own accord within the coming days or weeks, we’ll soon see what the government is really capable of, and their long-term intentions will be crystal clear.

Joshua Krause is a reporter, writer and researcher at The Daily Sheeple. He was born and raised in the Bay Area and is a freelance writer and author. You can follow Joshua’s reports at Facebook or on his personal Twitter. Joshua’s website is Strange Danger .

Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy’s three sons and “about 150” militiamen have occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge HQ to protest the pending imprisonment of two Oregon ranchers accused of arson, arguing the federal government has no authority in local cases.

“We’re going to be freeing these lands up, and getting ranchers back to ranching, getting the loggers back to logging, getting the miners back to mining where they could do it under the protection of the people and not be afraid of this tyranny that’s been set upon them,” Ammon Bundy, who appears to be the leader of the group, said in a Facebook video posted by Sarah Dee Spurlock on Saturday.

Bundy appears to be standing at the scene of the takeover, surrounded by several men in military-style uniforms with rifles and hand-held radios.

The rancher points out that Harney County used to be the richest in state, and is now the poorest. His radical proposal to solve the situation is to have armed “patriots” come and live in a de-facto self-rule zone independent of the federal authorities.

“Until that line is drawn and say ‘we’ve had enough of this tyranny, you are going to leave us alone’ it will not change,” the military-clad man says.

According to Cooper, they hope their occupation will spell the beginning of a US-wide movement.

“It doesn’t have to stop here. This could be a hope that spreads through the whole country, the whole United States. Everybody’s looking for this hope because the government has beat us, and oppressed us, and took everything from us; they will not stop until we tell them no,” he claims.

The militiamen told OregonLive there were about 150 of them, but a couple who delivered food to the refuge HQ estimated that there were just 15.

The Bundys and their armed supporters occupied the federal property after splitting from a peaceful Saturday morning protest in Burns, Oregon.

Some 300 people marched through the town to protest against the prosecution of two Harney County ranchers, Dwight Hammond Jr. and Steven Hammond, who are scheduled to report to prison on Monday.

Both ranchers were convicted on charges of setting fire to federal land. The case has attracted interest from local militia and intensified debate around the federal government’s authority.

“Dwight Lincoln Hammond, Jr., 73, and his son, Steven Dwight Hammond, 46, both residents of Diamond, Oregon in Harney County, were sentenced to five years in prison by Chief US District Judge Ann Aiken for arsons they committed on federal lands,”the US Attorney Office said.

The occupation resembles the Bundy Ranch standoff of 2014, when the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) attempted to enforce grazing laws. Bundy got the help of armed militia and triggered a standoff with federal authorities.

The family said heavily-armed federal agents had surrounded their ranch as “trespass cattle” were removed from the disputed land.

Since 1993, Cliven Bundy – the “last rancher in Clark County, Nevada” – has refused to pay fees to the federal government for the right to raise cattle on land that his family has ranched since the 1870s, according to the Washington Free Beacon.

The dispute began in 1998 when the BLM designated 186,909 acres of the Gold Butte area, where the ranch is located, as“critical” for the survival of the desert tortoise population. Bundy had lost his grazing permit in 1993, despite his family’s long-time presence on the land.

According to the BLM, Bundy owes around $1 million in fees, while the family contends the sum is more like $300,000.

The Pendleton, Oregon jury found the Hammonds guilty of the arsons in June 2012. Both were charged with igniting a series of fires on lands managed by the BLM.

Hammond Ranches has about 12,000 acres in the Diamond-Frenchglen area. Their livelihood is running cattle during the winter. Two years ago, the ranch used 26,420 acres of land belonging to the BLM for summer grazing.

Supporters of the Hammonds believe they were treated unconstitutionally because the two were convicted of arson under a provision of an expansive federal law punishing terrorism. They both served their prison terms for 2001 and 2006 fires, but were then told by appellate judges they had to go back to prison to serve more.

Ranchers use fire in eastern Oregon to burn invasive species. However, it is a dangerous practice, as several wildfires in the area have gotten out of hand, scorching hundreds of thousands of acres.

The controversial case demonstrates a problem with a 1996 law, which was introduced to punish domestic terrorists, according to Barry Bushue, the longtime president of the Oregon Farm Bureau.

“I find it incredible that the government would want to try these ranchers as terrorists,” Bushue told The Pete Santilli Show. “Now is where the rubber meets the road. Right now is when the public should absolutely be incensed. And the public, I think, should be fearful.”

Update at 9:15 p.m.: Statement from Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward: “After the peaceful rally was completed today, a group of outside militants drove to the Malheur Wildlife Refuge, where they seized and occupied the refuge headquarters. A collective effort from multiple agencies is currently working on a solution. For the time being please stay away from that area. More information will be provided as it becomes available. Please maintain a peaceful and united front and allow us to work through this situation.”

The Bundy family of Nevada joined with hard-core militiamen Saturday to take over the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, vowing to occupy the remote federal outpost 50 miles southeast of Burns for years.

The occupation came shortly after an estimated 300 marchers — militia and local citizens both — paraded through Burns to protest the prosecution of two Harney County ranchers, Dwight Hammond Jr. and Steven Hammond, who are to report to prison on Monday.

Among the occupiers is Ammon Bundy, son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, and two of his brothers. Militia members at the refuge claimed they had as many as 100 supporters with them. The refuge, federal property managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, was closed and unoccupied for the holiday weekend.

In phone interviews from inside the occupied building Saturday night, Ammon Bundy and his brother, Ryan Bundy, said they are not looking to hurt anyone. But they would not rule out violence if police tried to remove them, they said.

“The facility has been the tool to do all the tyranny that has been placed upon the Hammonds,” Ammon Bundy said.

“We’re planning on staying here for years, absolutely,” he added. “This is not a decision we’ve made at the last minute.”

Neither man would say how many people are in the building or whether they are armed. Ryan Bundy said there were no hostages, but the group is demanding that the Hammonds be released and the federal government relinquish control of the Malheur National Forest.

He said many would be willing to fight — and die, if necessary — to defend what they see as constitutionally protected rights for states, counties and individuals to manage local lands.

“The best possible outcome is that the ranchers that have been kicked out of the area, then they will come back and reclaim their land, and the wildlife refuge will be shut down forever and the federal government will relinquish such control,” he said. “What we’re doing is not rebellious. What we’re doing is in accordance with the Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land.”

Government sources told The Oregonian/OregonLive that the militia also was planning to occupy a closed wildland fire station near the town of Frenchglen. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management posts crews there during the fire season.

Law enforcement officials so far have not commented on the situation. Oregon State Police, the Harney County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI were involved.

Ammon Bundy posted a video on his Facebook page calling on patriots from across the country to report to the refuge – with their weapons.

Pennies In ProtestMarchers pause outside the entrance to the Harney County Sheriff’s Office to toss pennies. The coins were meant to symbolize citizens buying back their government

The dramatic turn came after other militia groups had tried to dampen community concerns they meant trouble.

Brandon Curtiss, a militia leader from Idaho, told The Oregonian/OregonLive he knew nothing about the occupation. He helped organize Saturday’s protest and was at the Harney County Fairgrounds with dozens of other militia for a post-parade function. Another militia leader, BJ Soper, took to Facebook to denounce the occupation.

The occupation is being led by hard-core militia who adopted the Hammond cause as their own.

Ammon Bundy met with Dwight Hammond and his wife in November, seeking a way to keep the elderly rancher from having to surrender for prison. The Hammonds professed through their attorneys that they had no interest in ignoring the order to report for prison.

Ammon Bundy said the goal is to turn over federal land to local ranchers, loggers and miners. He said he met with 10 or so residents in Burns on Friday to try to recruit them, but they declined.

Burns Protest Marchers including militia and local residents Saturday head for the Harney County Courthouse as part of a protest against government.

“We went to the local communities and presented it many times and to many different people,” he said. “They were not strong enough to make the stand. So many individuals across the United States and in Oregon are making this stand. We hope they will grab onto this and realize that it’s been happening.”

Among those joining Bundy in the occupation are Ryan Payne, U.S. Army veteran, and Blaine Cooper. Payne has claimed to have helped organize militia snipers to target federal agents in a standoff last year in Nevada. He told one news organization the federal agents would have been killed had they made the wrong move.

He has been a steady presence in Burns in recent weeks, questioning people who were critical of the militia’s presence. He typically had a holstered sidearm as he moved around the community.

At a community meeting in Burns Friday, Payne disavowed any ill intent.

“The agenda is to uphold the Constitution. That’s all,” he said.

Cooper, another militia leader, said at that meeting he participated in the Bundy standoff in Nevada.

“I went there to defend Cliven with my life,” Cooper said.

Ian K. Kullgren of The Oregonian/OregonLive contributed to this report.

DALLAS TX – Just one week after DontComply.com started an international conversation on the danger of gun free zones by staging a mock mass shooting near the University of Texas, the group hosted their annual Feed the Need event in defiance of a city ordinance.

The Dallas City Council has decided that sharing food with more than 75 people requires permission from the city in the form of a permit and an associated fee. Living up to their name, DontComply did not receive the necessary permission to host their event as a form of civil disobedience. Code enforcers did make an appearance and served lead organizer, Murdoch Pizgatti with the city ordinance which governs feeding the homeless and encouraged him to file the necessary paperwork after the event concluded. Pizgatti stated that he has no intentions on filing that paperwork.

The event took place on a public sidewalk outside the Austin Street Shelter just east of downtown Dallas. Hundreds of homeless were able to enjoy a fantastic array of food, snacks, and beverages along with an assortment of warm winter clothes that were donated by DontComply members.

All of the homeless people that I talked to during the event were extremely grateful for the support and there was a sense of humanity that is indescribable. Interacting with other human beings whom most consider to be living life at rock bottom will likely alter your perspective on the world around you.

With tough economic times ahead, we can only expect this homeless epidemic to worsen, so consider joining forces with DontComply, or any other group who helps the homeless and less fortunate. The problem will not solve itself.

What’s a bigger threat, government thugs with guns or corporate board rooms? Oligarchs advocate giving the government more power because it strengthens the tool they use to control us. If we took away government, corporations would have to win our business by adding value to our lives, not by limiting our choices through regulations. What’s better? A corporate government versus a voluntary society?

Back in 2014, civil liberties and privacy advocates were up in arms when the government tried to quietly push through the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, or CISA, a law which would allow federal agencies – including the NSA – to share cybersecurity, and really any information with private corporations “notwithstanding any other provision of law.” The most vocal complaint involved CISA’s information-sharing channel, which was ostensibly created for responding quickly to hacks and breaches, and which provided a loophole in privacy laws that enabled intelligence and law enforcement surveillance without a warrant.

Ironically, in its earlier version, CISA had drawn the opposition of tech firms including Apple, Twitter, Reddit, as well as the Business Software Alliance, the Computer and Communications Industry Association and many others including countless politicians and, most amusingly, the White House itself.

In April, a coalition of 55 civil liberties groups and security experts signed onto an open letter opposing it. In July, the Department of Homeland Security itself warned that the bill could overwhelm the agency with data of “dubious value” at the same time as it “sweep[s] away privacy protections.” Most notably, the biggest aggregator of online private content, Facebook, vehemently opposed the legislation however a month ago it was “surprisingly” revealed that Zuckerberg had been quietly on the side of the NSA all along as we reported in “Facebook Caught Secretly Lobbying For Privacy-Destroying “Cyber-Security” Bill.”

Following the blitz response, the push to pass CISA was tabled following a White House threat to veto similar legislation. Then, quietly, CISA reemerged after the same White House mysteriously flip-flopped, expressed its support for precisely the same bill in August.

And then the masks fell off, when it became obvious that not only are corporations eager to pass CISA despite their previous outcry, but that they have both the White House and Congress in their pocket.

As Wired reminds us, when the Senate passed the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act by a vote of 74 to 21 in October, privacy advocates were again “aghast” that the key portions of the law were left intact which they said make it more amenable to surveillance than actual security, claiming that Congress has quietly stripped out “even more of its remaining privacy protections.”

“They took a bad bill, and they made it worse,” says Robyn Greene, policy counsel for the Open Technology Institute.

But while Congress was preparing a second assault on privacy, it needed a Trojan Horse with which to enact the proposed legislation into law without the public having the ability to reject it.

It found just that by attaching it to the Omnibus $1.1 trillion Spending Bill, which passed the House early this morning, passed the Senate moments ago and will be signed into law by the president in the coming hours.

In a late-night session of Congress, House Speaker Paul Ryan announced a new version of the “omnibus” bill, a massive piece of legislation that deals with much of the federal government’s funding. It now includes a version of CISA as well. Lumping CISA in with the omnibus bill further reduces any chance for debate over its surveillance-friendly provisions, or a White House veto. And the latest version actually chips away even further at the remaining personal information protections that privacy advocates had fought for in the version of the bill that passed the Senate.

It gets: it appears that while CISA was on hiatus, US lawmakers – working under the direction of corporations adnt the NSA – were seeking to weaponize the revised legislation, and as Wired says, the latest version of the bill appended to the omnibus legislation seems to exacerbate the problem of personal information protections.

It creates the ability for the president to set up “portals” for agencies like the FBI and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, so that companies hand information directly to law enforcement and intelligence agencies instead of to the Department of Homeland Security. And it also changes when information shared for cybersecurity reasons can be used for law enforcement investigations. The earlier bill had only allowed that backchannel use of the data for law enforcement in cases of “imminent threats,” while the new bill requires just a “specific threat,” potentially allowing the search of the data for any specific terms regardless of timeliness.

Some, like Senator Ron Wyden, spoke out out against the changes to the bill in a press statement, writing they’d worsened a bill he already opposed as a surveillance bill in the guise of cybersecurity protections.

Senator Richard Burr, who had introduced the earlier version of bill, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

“Americans deserve policies that protect both their security and their liberty,” he wrote. “This bill fails on both counts.”

Why was the CISA included in the omnibus package, which just passed both the House and the Senate? Because any “nay” votes – or an Obama – would also threaten the entire budget of the federal government. In other words, it was a question of either Americans keeping their privacy or halting the funding of the US government, in effect bankrupting the nation.

And best of all, the rushed bill means there will be no debate.

The bottom line as OTI’s Robyn Green said, “They’ve got this bill that’s kicked around for years and had been too controversial to pass, so they’ve seen an opportunity to push it through without debate. And they’re taking that opportunity.”

The punchline: “They’re kind of pulling a Patriot Act.”

And when Obama signs the $1.1 trillion Spending Bill in a few hours, as he will, it will be official: the second Patriot Act will be the law, and with it what little online privacy US citizens may enjoy, will be gone.

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